A designer party with an international feel – the award ceremony for the ‘red dot award: communication design 2008’

With a design agency of the year, a red dot cinema and more guests than ever before, there were lots of new developments at this year’s award ceremony for the ‘red dot award: communication design’. The entire evening inspired and impressed around 800 creative artists from the design industry. One of the special highlights of the evening was the presentation of the ‘red dot: design agency of the year’ title to Strichpunkt, which was present on stage to receive its prize, the ‘Stylus’ challenge cup. The award was new to the competition this year. Professor Dr. Peter Zec, head of the Design Zentrum Nordrhein Westfalen, initiator of the red dot design award and Senator of Icsid, welcomed on stage Professor Kurt Weidemann, Jennifer Tsai and Holger Windfuhr, who attended as representatives for the international jury of experts, to hand over the certificates and trophies to the winners. After the award ceremony, the exhibition of the winners, ‘Design on stage – winners red dot award: communication design 2008’, and the interactive exhibition of the ‘red dot: design agency of the year’, Strichpunkt, entitled ‘High Voltage Design’, were officially opened. Both exhibitions will be on show in the red dot design museum until January 4, 2009.

red dot: junior prize for ‘Surveillance Map of the World’

There was excitement up to the very last moment for the winners of the special prizes. As the winners of the ‘red dot: best of the best’, they were all nominated for the ‘red dot: grand prix’ or the ‘red dot: junior prize’. The winners of the special prizes were not announced until the actual prize ceremony itself, and were called to the stage a second time to receive their prize. The winner of the ‘red dot: junior prize’ is Raul Mandru from Fachhochschule Dortmund (University of Applied Sciences and Arts), who received his prize for the best student project, entitled ‘Surveillance Map of the World’. The prize money amounts to EUR 10,000.

Five ‘red dot: grand prix’ prizes awarded

The ‘red dot: grand prix’, which goes to the best works in the individual categories, was awarded to five recipients this year: the design office Total Identity bv, Amsterdam, for its work on ‘Corporate Identity Zuidas Amsterdam’; the design agency of the year, Strichpunkt, for the ‘Air Berlin Annual Report 2007’; Scholz & Friends Identify for ‘ABC of Humanity’ (‘Die Geisteswissenschaften. Das ABC der Menschheit’); ART+COM AG for the interactive installation ‘Duality’; and people interactive for ‘Showroom 2.0’.

red dot cinema

The award-winning works from the TV & Cinema category are being presented this year for the first time in the red dot cinema. Peter Zec explained this new development: “The increase in the number of entries from the field of multimedia made it necessary to present these excellent works appropriately, and inspired the red dot cinema.” The red dot cinema is open until January 4, 2009 as part of the exhibition of the winners.

Winners’ party in the red dot design museum

The percussion show ‘Beats and Noises’ provided the entertaining musical setting for the red dot gala. All award-winners and numerous guests from the creative field were invited to the Winners’ party, where the winners had an opportunity to celebrate their awards in a relaxed and creative atmosphere. The music selected by DJ Fishi, whose success is known far beyond the boundaries of the Ruhr region, ensured a fun atmosphere. The culinary delights included green cabbage, which has become a tradition at the event, and the specialities of the gourmet caterer, Kaiserschote, which were presented in the unusual ‘Aquabar’. Of course, the legendary red dot cocktail was also on offer, and the guests at the winners’ party celebrated until the early hours.

Winners’ exhibition and exhibition of the ‘red dot: design agency of the year’

All winners of this year’s ‘red dot award: communication design’ will be on show for a four-week period as part of the exhibition ‘Design on stage – winners red dot award: communication design 2008’ in the red dot design museum. In an exhibition entitled ‘High Voltage Design’, the Strichpunkt agency will present an interactive view of its consistently excellent design work from recent years. The exhibitions will be on show in the red dot design museum until January 4, 2009 alongside the permanent product exhibition.

Documenting the competition

The ‘international yearbook communication design 2008/2009’ was published on the day of the award ceremony. The yearbook has become a respected reference work for contemporary communication design. It is published by red dot’s own publishing house, red dot edition. In order to present the winners of the multimedia categories appropriately, this year’s book is accompanied for the first time by a CD-ROM with all award-winning works from this field.

The red dot design award

With roughly 11,000 entries from 61 nations and its disciplines ‘red dot award: product design’, ‘red dot award: communication design’ and ‘red dot award: design concept’, the red dot design award is the world’s largest design competition. Less than ten percent of all entries go on to receive the sought-after awards. This makes the red dot design award probably the toughest competition in the world.